Can you provide the highlights of your background?

I am a frequent speaker at events and engage with hundreds of business executives about their overall data management strategies. In the high-velocity world of IT and data management, I remain focused on helping businesses harness the power of data and use it to fuel the economic engine of growing companies, communities, and people.

I believe IT can be transformed from a cost center into a revenue generator with the right data management, analytics, and execution. I bring more than 20 years of experience in the industry building and managing communications and operational teams in data and technology industries in both private and publicly traded organizations. Notably, I have twice helped companies earn a top 500 designation in the Inc. 5000 annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.

What is the mission of Aunalytics and what unique products/services are provided by the company?

Digital Transformation is top-of-mind for organizations across various industries. But that doesn’t mean simply converting systems into digital formats — it is an organization-wide shift to enable the full utilization of data. Aunalytics turns company data into answers with a secure, reliable, and scalable data platform deployed and managed—as a service.

The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics, and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its Daybreak industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses.

Rich Carlton, President and Chief Revenue Officer of Aunalytics

Can you provide a walkthrough of the company’s offering and its benefit to customers?

Aunalytics provides a portfolio of services and software that includes the Aunalytics® Cloud Storage and Compute solution — providing a highly redundant and scalable platform for hosting servers, data, and applications at any performance level. Managed services enabled include enterprise security, cloud storage and compute, backup/disaster recovery, IT support, and analytics services.

The Daybreak Analytic Database provides daily insights powered by a robust data platform, industry intelligence, and smart features that enable analytics solutions across client organizations
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With this powerful solution, libraries of data are cleansed and enriched by third-party sources and insights gleaned by Daybreak’s AI and machine learning. The intelligent relational data marts organize data by customer, patient, product, service, facilities, account, marketing campaign, and more.

Daybreak is enabled by the Aunsight Data Platform, which provides cloud-native advanced analytics, computing, and data warehouse storage infrastructure and software. The data accuracy feature provides automated data management including data profiling, auto-mapping, ingestion, integration, ELT/ETL, cleansing, Golden Record and governance. The platform includes Smart Features, which are high-value data fields created by the organization’s data scientists to answer industry and functional questions. The service also includes access to a team of expert data engineers, ingestion engineers, business analysts, client success team, and data scientists for expert guidance.

Having a corporate analytics solution does not guarantee accurate insights. How does the company go beyond competitive options to improve business intelligence?

Aunalytics provides cloud-native advanced analytics, computing, and data warehouse storage infrastructure and software. The data accuracy feature provides automated data management including data profiling, auto-mapping, ingestion, integration, ELT/ETL, cleansing, Golden Record, and governance. The company orchestrates libraries of customer data that is cleansed and enriched by third-party sources and insights gleaned by Daybreak’s AI and machine learning. Our intelligent relational data marts organize data by customer, patient, product, service, facilities, account, marketing campaign, and more.

The post Delivering Insights-as-a-Service for Enterprise appeared first on Tech Trends.

After more than a year when most of us had no choice but to do most of our shopping online, Lush was far from the only retailer which had to rely heavily on technology to keep going. Yet even now as things seem to be returning to something closer to a pre-pandemic reality and we look forward to going getting out of the house to go shopping (imagine!) that doesn’t mean we have to give up all the benefits that technology can add to making the retail experience better.

Lush Lens was designed to offer customers a packaging-free and contact-free shopping experience.
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With that in mind, the handmade cosmetics company has just relaunched the Lush App, developed in collaboration with Saleor using open-source technology in line with Lush’s Digital Ethics Mission Statement. It will allow customers to browse product ranges with improved search optimisation, a new checkout process, and new ways to pay.

Lush Lens has had 2.6 million scans since its launch on iOS in 2018
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The app – which is now available in the UK on iOS and Android – features for the first time one of the most successful #LushLabs features, called Lush Lens, a mobile AR feature which was designed by Lush’s in-house tech R&D team to offer customers a packaging-free and contact-free shopping experience.

Lush Lens has had 2.6 million scans since its launch on iOS in November 2018, prompting the company’s founder, Mark Constantine, to assert that the technology had the potential to revolutionize the packaging industry, and even possibly eliminate it.

“At Lush we make products by hand, with fresh and ethically sourced ingredients, and this informs our digital products too. I’m so proud of the new platform the teams have created which showcases the best of what we can do – ethical treatment of customers’ data, created using open source technologies and providing a five star customer experience, with a few Lush surprises along the way,” says Jack Constantine, Chief Digital Officer at Lush.

Lush Digital believes in ethical tech that ultimately gives back more than it takes from society and the environment
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Lush champions ethical hardware, ethical data, ethical design and open source technologies. Just as the company ethically sources ingredients, Lush Digital believes in ethical tech that ultimately gives back more than it takes from society and the environment.

Adam Goswell, Lush Tech R&D, believes that such technology can add (not replace) in giving quality, up to date information in matching customers with the perfect product.

“If we can reduce the time spent at the till or eliminate the queue (which we all hate) then technology is really going to elevate the retail experience to be much more about human interaction and experience,” he believes.

Tech Trends’  Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance their brand’s digital strategy with immersive and emerging technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter

The post Getting a Post-Pandemic Digital Makeover appeared first on Tech Trends.

It’s rare to find an app where even the free version is also free of advertisement. So what’s the catch? Surely it profits from user data in some way, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in tech…

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam
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Yet according to Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick, the app’s strict no-tracking policy is a point of principle, and there is, in fact, no need for such intrusion into user privacy. Enough of their users are happy to pay the very reasonable $4.99 a month for the “Pro version” to fund the free app as well.

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam. Like all great tech ideas, it’s a simple concept, well-executed.

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market, so by using that old phone sitting in your drawer doing nothing as a webcam, you can get next-level video quality.

A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web
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The app has been used by the likes of Seth Godin, Wall St Journal’s Joanna Stern plus employees from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities, who praise it for its ability to create a professional-quality webcam experience from the user’s phone and browser.

“I’ve spent years building products to help people get better access to their own data,” says Fitzpatrick, who founded his company Reincubate in 2008 after building the world’s first tool for iOS data recovery, which enabled users to securely manage their data.

Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick is a software engineer, angel investor, entrepreneur, and author who started his first company at 14

There's a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information
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Working in that space for so long gave him many opportunities to see the more distasteful ways to use data, and the wide range of bad actors out there looking to get access to it, he explains as he unpacks how important the issue is to him.

“The internet has played a big role in my life and my career, and it’s in almost everyone’s interests to push it along the responsible, sustainable path of public good rather than narrow, private interests.”

Fighting Fakery

Fitzpatrick talks about the idea that consumers on the web these days are surrounded by “fakery.”

Yet while some forms of fakery — fake news, fakery in public discourse, and the use of trolls to attack viewpoints on social media – have been widely discussed, there is a lot more to it than that, he explains.

“Fakery pays off for the unethical. Amazon and other platforms have received coverage for fake product reviews on their platforms. Instagram is busy with promoted products, many of which use fake reviews and undisclosed influencer endorsements. Sometimes even the products themselves are fake.”

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market
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“More broadly, consumers have experience with this fakery on Google. There are some Google searches that are just hard to do. Have you ever tried searching for a plumber or medical advice on Google?  There’s a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information.”

Even services like Grubhub and Postmates have been criticized for allegedly faking profiles for restaurants that they don’t partner with, in an attempt to capture and redirect their leads. “A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web,” says Fitzpatrick

Making it Pay

While Fitzpatrick believes that consumer privacy and choice have been jeopardized by large web corporations and social media giants, he recognizes that they must make money.

His argument, however, is that there is no need for such companies to be so data-hungry in capturing and monetizing information about their users. It is, in fact, still possible for them to build effective first-party advertising networks with a smaller set of data.

“Paid services along the lines that Apple focuses on, or which Google have explored with YouTube Music may prove increasingly worthwhile.”

And of course, his own product manages to make money without storing and tracking consumer data:

“Our model is very simple: we offer a free version of our products, and a paid version. We’ve no need to track data for trials, or to try and monetize with ads baked into our products, so we don’t.”

Algorithm Anarchy

He breaks down this disruptive rationale into three key areas that those designing tech products must think about to enable consumers to have more authentic experiences online:

1. Product: We don’t track user data in the products. We have no need to, and no interest in doing so. People’s data belongs to them. If the app fails, we do record information on what went wrong, but that’s clearly metadata, and about the functioning of the product in order that we can improve it, rather than anything about the customer. Where we record limited metadata on how the app is used, we only do for the purpose of better understanding and developing our own product — not for marketing — and we don’t share that information with any third parties.
2. Customer Records: If you buy something from a company, what data do they collect? We ask for the UK’s statutory minimum. We need their email and country of residence in order to send them the license and to apply the correct taxes. We use a third-party for card-processing, and don’t have any card details. In the UK we have to keep financial records for at least 6 years, but where users have lifetime licenses we need to keep that data for at least that time. Fortunately, it’s a very narrow set of data.
3. Marketing: This is hard because overreach in data capture feels like the norm. Most systems that permit advertising ask customers to embed tracking tools in their mobile or desktop apps or on their sites, and this is something we push back on. We don’t embed any advertising analytics tools in our products for this reason. Then there’s visitor tracking. We do use an analytics product to count the number of visitors to our site, and we’ve more work to do as the industry evolves to get ourselves happier with how these systems work. We’ve made good progress.

“The tech industry often assumes that using particular channels to market a product requires tracking. We reject that. Reincubate will continue to safeguard consumer privacy and choice with our commitment to respect privacy, refuse data monetization and intrusive tracking.”

Camo key features include:

• Film-quality video
• Easy customizing:  lighting, crop, zoom, focus, at your fingertips
• Plug and play
• Plays well with others:  use with Zoom, Meet, Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, Cisco Webex Meetings  +.
• Previews before going live
• The newly released 1.3 version offers even better functionality, including support for an additional 11 languages supported, power conservation, and screen aesthetic features.

Camo’s free edition is great for straightforward, high-quality calls, but lacks adjustments. It gives you resolutions up to and including 720p video, along with a choice of the device’s selfie lens, or it’s main back lens (the wide one). The free version of Camo also lets you access your device’s audio, and keep the screen of your device dimmed while using Camo. With free version, you can also connect multiple iOS devices and switch between them.

If you upgrade to Camo Pro, you get the following:

• Access to every lens on your phone (such as selfie, telephoto, ultra-wide & wide)
• “Portrait mode” on iPhone’s that support it, with bokeh effect and shallow depth-of-field
• Control of the device’s flash for use as a light ( turn it on and off, control the brightness)
• Access to any resolution the device provides (opening up 1080p and 1440 x 1080)
• Video mirroring
• Rotation of the feed in 90° increments (in case your phone is orientation locked)
• Zoom controls, with pan and tilt to keep you front and centre
• Focus adjustments (autofocus, focus on a particular area, manual focus control)
• Shutter speed and ISO adjustments
• Image adjustments including brightness, temperature, tint, hue, saturation, contrast, gamma, sharpness

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post How Algorithm Anarchy Can Set You Free appeared first on Tech Trends.

Democratizing Animation

Marketers know that few tools are as effective in engaging your audience as a well-crafted animation. Traditionally, however, this type of material has been extremely labor-intensive – and therefore costly – to produce.

Yet LottieFiles is a company looking to change all that with its open-source tool that allows animators to spend less time learning and deploying complex code and more time crafting captivating content that will wow users and increase conversion rates.

LottieFiles allows designers to spend less time learning and deploying complex code and more time crafting captivating content
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Lottiefiles is a lightweight, interactive, and scalable animation format that allows for customization without having to code, build and render bulky files from scratch. In fact, Lottie files are, on average, 600% smaller than other popular animation formats such GIFs, allowing for a much faster, more responsive, and therefore engaging user experience (UX).

Lottie files are on average 600% smaller than GIFs, allowing for a much faster, responsive, and engaging user experience
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Popular apps such as Airbnb and Duolingo have wholeheartedly embraced this user-friendliness. Use cases for Lottie animations range from app loading and wait screes to gamification and user onboarding, as well a vast array of websites and apps looking to serve meaningful content to their users, according to LottieFiles CTO Nattu Adnan

“LottieFiles has helped hundreds of thousands of developers and designers from over 65,000 global fortune companies like Netflix, Disney, Google and Amazon to ship interactive animation faster and more effectively,” adds the company’s Co-Founder and CEO Kshitij Minglani.

Augmenting Reality

AR (Augmented Reality) has been steadily gathering momentum in recent years, and it is easy to see why. Merging the physical and digital worlds is an exciting proposition that opens up a whole world of possibilities for users, and the companies hoping to reach and keep them engaged.

From new ways of experiencing art to enabling customers to realistically try products before committing to a purchase, Augmented Reality is becoming ever more pervasive across an incredibly broad swathe of industries.

Augmented Reality is becoming ever more pervasive across an incredibly broad swathe of industries.
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“Research shows that AR will evolve from one-off ‘surprise and delight’ moments to provide everyday utility and practical value, right across the consumer journey.  This could include helping people visualize how products look in their home, locating products in-store through wayfinding applications, or getting more out of a product post-purchase through usage guidance,” explains Jeremy Pounder, Futures Director at Mindshare UK

One example of how it is possible for innovative companies to bring their customers the best of both worlds by creating Omnichannel experiences is Canadian start-up StickerYou which offers customized, die-cut stickers online, but also maintains a physical shop where customers can touch and feel the merchandise.

“The broader trend in retail, particularly among millennials, is a shift in focus from products toward experiences. For this reason, many customers still choose to visit a physical shop even if it may be more convenient to order the item online, explains StickerYou Founder and President, Andrew Witkin. “For retailers, this presents an opportunity to leverage technology to literally augment the value of their products for their customers,” he concludes.

Meeting Virtually

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic became the catalyst for what we now know as a socially distanced “new normal,” technology had been pushing us towards having more of our interactions in virtual environments.

From virtual live comedy shows to professional poker tournaments, people had started to not only accept the premise of hosting their familiar interactions and experiences in immersive virtual worlds.

Technology has been pushing us towards having more of our interactions in virtual environments
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Given the continuation of the pandemic, however, we have seen most events in the global conference calendar going virtual in some way or another, including one of the biggest highlights in the tech circuit – South by Southwest (SXSW) which is held in Austin, Texas in March.

SXSW Online 2021 included a variety of online meetings, sessions, musical performances, and many attempts at virtually recreating the interactive experience of SXSW.

As Tech Trends correspondent Laura Kobylecky reports, the world of virtual Austin exists within VRChat, an online, virtual reality, social platform which added a layer of immersion and interactivity to this year’s online conference and left her feeling as if she’d really attended the event.

Tech Trends’  Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance their brand’s digital strategy with immersive and emerging technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Top UI/UX Trends for 2021 appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

Normally, a convention like CES has a big expo hall with a variety of companies and promotional marketing techniques. This year, at online CES 2021, that has been replaced with a virtual exhibit hall. It is a section of the CES website where the exhibitors are listed alphabetically.

You can also narrow the exhibitors by category. Click on their name and you will go to a page with some basic info and whatever facts, media, and contact information they choose to provide. There is also a chat function available. Some of them have a “microsite,” a custom website they have created solely for their CES presence.

P&G LifeLab

Proctor and Gamble have taken it a step further. They created a virtual world, accessible as a microsite. It is called LifeLab. In some ways, it is the recreation of a basic experiential marketing event at a convention. There is an event “footprint,” a small area transformed into a branded space where they have demos. There are brand representatives roaming about and waiting to help or explain.

#CES2021 features a virtual exhibit hall
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When you first click on the microsite, you are offered the chance to modify your avatar. The standard is a genderless blue form in tan slacks and a black long-sleeve shirt. You enter an elevator and appear to be traveling through the void of space, except the stars are replaced by various P&G products.

You leave the elevator to enter a large white room. There you can go to other areas, like the strangely dark “Oral B” world. You walk up to videos and they show animated screens with bacteria and speak ominously about tooth decay. The audio is dimensional. As you turn to leave, the sound retreats quietly and in a spatially-correct direction.

Overall P&G's LifeLab it is an interestingly ambitious experiment in virtual experiential marketing
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On the main floor, you can speak with the representatives. If you stand still, they are likely to approach. They speak to you with real human voices and human names and you realize that these are probably actual humans. They offer to explain things to you and you can press space to speak. Or you can back away without speaking. Oddly enough, the experience seems slightly more awkward than avoiding a conversation in real life, perhaps because the room is so empty.

If you walk by other people, you can hear their conversations too. This experience is also rendered with appropriately dimensional sound. There are “private” sitting areas you can go to if you would like to speak without all ears on your conversation. There is also a chat function for those who choose not to speak.

Proctor and Gamble have created a virtual world, accessible as a micrositem called LifeLab
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If you walk to the edge of the room you see a beautiful coastal view through a giant glass wall, but you can walk no farther. It might be a lake or an ocean. How this striking coastline relates to the LifeLab remains a mystery, but it makes the strange, white, room you roam in seem more bare and stark by contrast.

Occasionally, a small group of birds flies by randomly. You hear their calls at random points throughout the hall. Their sound, like the rest, is spatially placed, to a haunting effect as their voices echo in the room. They seem as hopeless as a sparrow in a grocery store. Who are these birds and how did they become trapped in the LifeLab? The answer is a mystery, known only to the makers of this mysterious lab.

Overall, it is an interestingly ambitious experiment in virtual experiential marketing. The graphics ran smoothly and the overall layout seemed well designed. I can imagine companies seeing this as a cost-effective substitute for the live events they would normally do.

Oddly enough, the experience seems slightly more awkward than avoiding a conversation in real life, perhaps because the room is so empty
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Does it meaningfully recreate the level of engagement normally available at a convention? Probably not. However, the P&G LifeLab is an admirable attempt at engaging marketing in a socially-distant world.

Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post Virtual Marketing at #CES2021 appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

CES is a yearly technology trade show and conference, owned and operated by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Last year, it snuck in under the wire, on January 7-10^th in Las Vegas, before 2020’s wave of coronavirus-related cancelations. This year, like many other conferences, it happens in an online-only format.

The event features a combination of video and some interactive elements. When you log into the website, you are greeted by a short video, explaining the basic functions of the website and accompanied by a jaunty little melody. The Exhibitor showcases begin on Tuesday, January 12. On Monday the 11^th there are live videos available.   Closed-captioning is one of the bonuses of the digital experience.

This year, like many other conferences CES happens in an online-only format
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One of these live videos is the “CTA’s Tech Trends Live Q&A,” with Steve Koenig, VP of research, and Lesley Rorhbaugh, director of research for CTA.

When asked about what technologies they find exciting for this year, Rorhbaugh mentions that smartphone technology interests her. Koenig mentions Mercedes Benz new high-tech MBUX dashboard.

When asked about expectations for smart glasses, Koenig expresses enthusiasm. Saying “this is definitely the year for AR. He emphasizes that the future maybe be found in “discrete solutions” and “degrees of immersion.” The discretion can be found in wearables that you can wear “all of the time.” These sorts of glasses won’t look out of place in the day-to-day.

The “degrees of immersion” can be found by moving past the segmented world of VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality). Really, these terms describe only how much the “virtual” has replaced or overlaid the “real” world. With this sort of easy-wear wearable, more easily integrated in the day to day, the level of immersion is not perfectly defined and might vary based on your personal usage.

This is definitely the year for AR
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Rorhbaugh is excited about voice technology. She envisions this as something that could help in-vehicle tech, particularly autonomous vehicles. From her perspective “safety plays a really key role” in that sector and voice technology might contribute to that.

In regard to another hot topic, remote learning, Koenig is optimistic to an extent. He believes in the positive side of “extending opportunities” and feels that universities may “lean into these spaces.” In a “post-crisis” world they will have “manifold options” to continue using this technology to their benefit. He believes that some of the current “friction” in the online learning world will be improved when the world is not in a “panicked rush online.”

Koenig believes that 5G networks will become significant in the near and distant future. He believes they will reach “dense urban areas first.” After that “we’ll be talking about this at CES’s in the next few years, how 5 g is just gonna really overlay the entire global economy.”

5G networks will become significant in the near and distant future
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The CTE trend forecasting session at CES is a bright take on a complicated year
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Televisions are another subject of optimism. In Koenig’s opinion, “there’s always something next for TV at CES.” Unfortunately, CES 2021 will require a bit more imagination than years past. There’s really no way to judge the crystal clear realism of a TV when it’s viewed through the window of another screen. But Koenig remains positive that these “massive, massive, TVs” being showcased will delight the public. With 4K and HDR being standard fare at the moment he believes that “we’ll see more 8k displays” and even greater resolution. He also thinks there will be more competition in the “OLED” (organic light-emitting diode) space.

In his opinion, smart TV is another thing that “continues to get better and better.” Touch-less technology will allow greater and simpler command and control. He also has believes AI applications will learn our viewing patterns and enhance the viewing experience as they “serve up content to us.”

There's always something next for TV at CES
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Other ideas mentioned in this session are smart masks, data dashboards, smart filtration systems, and emergency alert systems that create a more connected world or leverage the Internet of Things.

The CTE trend forecasting session at CES is a bright take on a complicated year. These ideas may serve as inspiration for those curious about what’s new and next for the world of consumer technology in 2021.

Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post CES: The Online Experience appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Donna Peng, editor of Digiarty Software

Many people have a DVD collection, large-sized, modest-sized, or small-sized, but they may have not watched any of those discs for years. One reason is that streaming services thrive these years, the other might be that it’s too much work to find the target DVD and turn on the DVD player (maybe, some even don’t have a DVD player anymore). But there is a way around this. We can digitize DVDs so that we are able to store the digital copies on NAS and manage and access using Plex. Once that is done, you can store them on a hard drive, USB flash drive, the cloud, or anywhere else.

To convert a physical disc into a digital file, we can seek a DVD copying service near us or download a piece of DVD ripping software online to do the job by ourselves. The latter tends to be a better choice because it costs less and gives us more control and convenience. No technical skills are required to handle a DVD ripper. After launching the program, we just need to load the target DVD, choose the desired output format and hit a button  to begin ripping. If you want to give that a try, I recommend WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Features

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is a mature product with over 70 million users since its debut in 2009. It can create rips from both your own home-made DVDs and commercial DVDs on Windows and Mac. It can make a 1:1 replica copy of your DVD and convert the main movie only into a space-friendly and watchable format for all of your devices.

Advanced DVD decoding mechanism

This feature plays an important role in making WinX DVD Ripper Platinum stand out from the multitudinous throngs of DVD rippers. This mechanism is regularly updated so that it can bypass new DVD copy protection schemes without the help of third-party applications like libdvdcss or something. Till now, it can circumvent all region codes, RCE, CSS, APS, UOPs, Sony ARccOS, Disney X-Project, and more encryptions on movie DVDs, TV series DVDs, workout DVDs, and other video DVDs. It can read and decrypt old DVDs, newly-released titles with ease, and even handle badly structured and damaged DVD discs.

Multiple speed-boosting technologies

To improve DVD ripping speed, various technologies are added in succession, including Intel/NVIDIA powered GPU hardware acceleration, Multi-core CPU, Hyper-threading, and Super Encode Engine based on MMX- SSE & 3DNow! As a result, users just need about 5 minutes to rip a 2-hour DVD movie to MP4 format. Of course, the speed has a lot to do with computer hardware. But under the same conditions, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum works much faster than similar programs, such as HandBrake.

Rich output profiles

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is designed with more than 350 output presets covering from mainstream formats to hot devices to address different user needs.

Here are some typical use cases:

• General Profiles: MP4 Video (h.264+aac), AVI Video (Divx/Xvid+mp3), iPhone, iPad, Android Phone/Pad, WMV Video (wmv2+wav2), DVD Video Copy (MPEG2+DTS), M4V Video, MPEG4 Video, MOV Video.
• DVD Backup: clone DVD to ISO image, clone DVD to folder, main title content copy, full title copy
• Apple Device: iPhone video, iPad video, iPod video, Apple TV video, iMovie…
• Android Mobile/Pad: Samsung, Huawei, Google, Amazon…
• Sony Device: PS4, Xperia…
• Microsoft Device: Xbox, Surface Pro…
• Web Video Profile: YouTube Video, Facebook Video, Vimeo Video…
• To Music: MP3, AAC, AC3/DTS

Original quality kept

Choose a DVD backup preset and you will get a copy with the original quality. If you choose a general format, such as MP4, you also will not see visible quality loss. And you can drag the quality level to HQ point while selecting a profile and check Use High-Quality Engine to enhance the output image quality. Interlaced video will be changed to progressive scanning mode by ticking Deinterlacing.

Small Files

High-quality output doesn’t necessarily mean a big file. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum will compress DVD to the smallest file size possible. Here’s an example. We once used it to convert a 7.26GB movie DVD to MP4 (codec: H.264+AAC, resolution: keep origin), and finally got a 1.24GB file. The DVD rip is around 80% smaller than the original. We can save a lot of space this way, usually a few gigabytes for a DVD movie.

Edit features

This DVD copying software also gives users a few useful editing features. Users can trim off unwanted clips such as ads and tidbits, crop out unwanted area like black bars, add external subtitle tracks, and merge multiple titles/episodes into a single file.

For more information, visit WinX DVD Ripper Platinum product page.

The post Digitizing Your DVD Library appeared first on Tech Trends.

Please tell us more about yourself?

I’m Philip Attfield, CEO of Sequitur Labs Inc. I have more than 25 years of experience in computing, networking, security and systems modeling at both large and small enterprises. I began my career at Nortel where I was a member of the scientific staff, developing software tools and in-house products for modeling, synthesis and verification of telecom and network equipment hardware. I later founded Signal 9 Solutions, which pioneered PC/desktop firewalls and created the Conseal brand of security products. At Boeing, I led the team responsible for the development of large-scale security policy and management framework. I’ve served in a number of high-profile roles in the field of digital forensics and am a frequent keynote speaker at international security conferences.

What is Sequitur Labs’ mission and what unique products/solutions do you provide?

Sequitur Labs is a software company developing and commercializing revolutionary technologies to improve embedded device and system security, manageability, and trustworthiness in the connected economy. Sequitur helps device OEMs reduce the cost and complexity of implementing security correctly by providing packaged software as a product. Sequitur’s software leverages advanced, on-chip hardware security technologies to deliver high-value strong security, economical and accessible security solutions.

Sequitur’s software solutions are critical security enablers for a large, worldwide market of device makers that need strong security but cannot afford the in-house expertise. Sequitur’s business approach includes demystifying and driving down the cost of security, simplifying deployment, and messaging the business value of security.

Could you give us a walkthrough of Sequitur’s products and what sets them apart?

The EmSPARK Security Suite was designed to address solutions in industries where embedded security is paramount such as industrial control, building automation, the smart home, machine vision, automotive communication, and medical devices. Built on three pillars of product security – design, build and sustain, EmSPARK provides device manufacturers with the firmware, tools and APIs needed to properly execute IoT protection. Our latest version of the EmSPARK Security Suite provides a robust security framework protecting embedded firmware, keys and security-critical assets through the entire device lifecycle. It enables silicon hardware security features, secure device provisioning, and API access to essential trust services such as secure storage, firmware updates and payload verification.

The EmSPARK Security Suite delivers a host of capabilities, including the integration of OpenSSL with functions secured by ARM TrustZone and preconfigured to use cryptographic functions available processors supporting this technology in hardware. The EmSPARK Security Suite also includes key management functions that form the basis of several secure processes such as trusted boot, storage and authentication with IoT clouds.

This allows developers to focus on building their application and/or device rather than spend time reading through data sheets to configure various hardware components. The result is that they can get their products to market faster.

Having an IoT security solution in place does not guarantee protection against an attack. How does your company offer greater assurance?

Devices secured by the EmSPARK Security Suite help customers reduce the risk and liability associated with IoT deployments. The Suite covers security requirements relevant at various stages of a product’s lifecycle.

We believe that a product must be secured from the time it is manufactured to the time it is decommissioned. This ensures that a company’s intellectual property (IP) is not stolen, the device operates without compromise at any point in its life, and that customer data is protected at all times. Additionally, it ensures that connections with remote systems, such as IoT cloud servers, are secure and tamper-proof.

For example, the EmSPARK Security Suite enables implementing a root of trust, which supports a variety of secure processes such as trusted boot. It creates a dual operating environment because a TrustZone-enabled processor can switch between secure and non-secure states. This allows isolating and separating critical material and data in a hardware secured area, dramatically improving device security. Developers can easily build applications that use secure resources without having to become experts in cryptography and complex hardware security technologies.

Analysts predict the global IoT security space will grow to USD $36.6 billion by 2025. Where do you see the future of IoT going?

With as many as 60 billion smart devices expected to be online in the near future, the likelihood that IoT products, applications and systems are going to be the main points of vulnerability from an organizational security standpoint seems fairly obvious. There are lots of lines of security built into corporate data centers to prevent break-ins and malicious attacks from cybercriminals but not nearly as much effort to secure the devices connecting to those data centers. The greatest obstacle to a future serviced by smart devices is security, including aggressive new variants that attack endpoints at the edge and threaten embedded computing systems.

IoT security is at an inflection point. In-house efforts to address device-level security are difficult and expensive, making it an unattractive option for many manufacturers. But I believe that the success of our industry will be achieved by helping developers build applications that use secure resources without having them having to become experts in cryptography and complex hardware security technologies. IoT will only be successful if device manufacturers and system operators can successfully and economically protect against threats. Working hand-in-hand with a comprehensive IoT security software solution will promote the growth of the industry beyond analysts’ predictions.

The post Improving IoT Security in the Connected Economy appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Dan Hubert, Founder and CEO of AppyWay

The process of trying to park on the streets – driving around looking for a space, watching for wardens, and trying to meet a deadline, all with a stream of traffic right behind you – isn’t exactly one of life’s pleasures. Yet, a different, smarter, tech-enabled approach is possible and gaining ground in the UK and globally. It is set to help deliver smarter cities, cleaner inner-city environments and healthier urban economies too.

Drivers in the UK waste an average of four days a year (91 hours) looking for a parking space^[1] and their parking fines come to around £1.2 billion a year. The current approach to parking also contributes significantly to congestion and emissions in cities. And the overall loss to the UK economy is about £26 billion a year when you add up all the fines, missed revenue opportunities, the cost of congestion and delays, the environmental impact, opportunity costs, and other societal costs.

Digitising the process is the key

So what exactly is this new approach? It’s digitised parking solutions. Excitingly, it is now possible to digitise the entire process of finding and securing parking spaces in the most seamless, efficient way. In fact, the technology is available to deliver effective utilisation of parking space, integrate payments and implement local traffic regulations. And by digitising on and off-street parking assets, drivers can access information on parking space availability and enjoy frictionless ‘one-click’ payments.

That is because today’s digitised parking utilises IoT technology, which enables smart parking sensors to provide absolute certainty on parking time, location, payments and other related interactions. Meanwhile, the cars themselves are increasingly becoming part of the traffic management infrastructure, using connected car data to help sense parking space availability.

This digitised approach to traffic management can bring significant benefits to road users. But for local authorities, there are benefits too. In the UK, the 418 councils spend around £1 billion a year operating parking services, while the cost of managing kerb regulation runs to only about £126 million a year.

Councils are therefore missing out on fair, effective and efficient revenue generation, along with the opportunity to reduce congestion and air pollution. And at a time of reduced revenues due to coronavirus and already tight budgets, this smart approach to traffic management presents councils with a real opportunity to optimise parking solutions. It is a seamless process that generates revenues thanks to increased dwell time by consumers and more efficient business use of parking.

Harrogate leads by example

Take Harrogate Borough Council. It faced typical challenges that many towns around the UK do – traffic congestion, concerns over air quality, reduction in central government funding and parking challenges in the town centre – but decided to take action through technology. In collaboration with North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate implemented AppyWay’s Smart City Parking Solution. As the name suggests, this is specifically designed to best serve those needing to park whilst providing a kerbside management tool for local authorities to better manage and optimise space.

The Smart City Parking Solution was launched in January 2019 and involved the installation of 2,156 smart sensors and the consolidation of digitised parking data, parking sensors, parking payments, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and linear pricing into a single solution for the two authorities. This enabled a totally seamless experience for users of the mobile app developed by AppyWay.

The new solution allowed users to find on-street or off-street parking with real-time availability and then start paying for parking sessions that end automatically when they drive away with a single click – One Click Parking. Also established was an entirely frictionless experience for drivers when passing through ANPR barriers in car parks. Meanwhile, the local authorities can see how their assets are consumed using a web-hosted analytics platform.

Feedback from consumers in Harrogate was very positive. Of those surveyed, 56% said they saved time parking, while 62% said they stayed longer in Harrogate as a result of not worrying about their parking ticket expiring.

Fleet operators benefit too

But while the benefits to private car drivers and local councils are clear, the system has real advantages for fleet operators too. In London, for example, Pimlico Plumbers were wasting between 20-30 minutes each time they needed a parking space and would receive 4-5 parking tickets a day due to lack of availability. They also had to guess the length of time required for a job, sometimes paying for 4-5 hours when the job only took one hour. This meant wasted time, stress and unnecessary cost.

To address this, AppyWay provided its “One Click Parking” solution to Pimlico Plumbers. Using a combination of M2M dongles and a mobile app, fleet drivers were able to find available spaces quickly and easily, start a parking session with one click and only paying for the minutes parked.

Road ahead is clear

The good news is that the above examples are not one offs, but very much the direction of travel for the whole country. That’s because such standardised and interoperable parking data forms part of the UK Government’s ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy.’ Key priorities in the strategy – tackling air pollution, congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution – are all supported by the parking management solution.

Ultimately, the result of such tech-driven parking solutions is to ease stress, save drivers’ time and make city centres more pleasant, all while helping local councils find huge efficiencies in their traffic management programs. And what’s not to like in that?

Dan Hubert is Founder and CEO of AppyWay, a leading kerbside management and smart parking technology company. Follow him on Twitter @DanHubertAppy

The post Digitising Parking Management appeared first on Tech Trends.

Qobuz – high res music streaming

While a large segment of music lovers still cling to vinyl and CDs the younger generation and those who live an on-demand, minimalist, and on-the-move lifestyle have embraced streaming for most of their movie and music needs. By now we are all familiar with Spotify, iTunes, and the evolving Google options and they are great for those who like music, but might not love it. True music lovers are the demographic Qobuz targets, streaming Hi-Res, and high-quality audio via some very well realized apps that will deliver a sublime listening experience no matter your lifestyle. For those running home music servers, Qobuz also provides a download shop so you can purchase and fully control the hardware streaming of your digital music.

Take a deep dive into the world of music and sound. Rediscover music’s history, its secrets, its roots and its influences, with original editorial content, available exclusively to our subscribers (articles, reviews, interviews, videos and more).

What impressed me most about Qobuz were the apps and web interfaces, all of which were pleasingly designed and packed full of engaging supporting content. Some offer digital booklets that accompany albums for those that miss the days of sleeve notes. Generally, the content and images offered are of excellent quality and paired well with recommendations for similar artists and albums. You can also subscribe to emails of music news and new releases or they offer a very nice online magazine covering well-curated industry news plus album and stereo hardware reviews.

The written recommendations provided by our discographers are not texts copied from record company blurbs, but original texts that aim to enlighten you, and to help you re-discover the world into which that album was born. At Qobuz, we love the album format. We celebrate more than a century of discography culture!

This being an audiophile product I expected a focus on classical and jazz but was so happy to find I could also find my favorite metal, pop, blues, country, and even 60s psychedelia. This is not a limited catalog by any means and I merrily jumped between Country Joe & the Fish, Dylan, Metallica, John Coltrane, Creedence, AC-DC, and Bach causing some odd looks from my coworkers.

Not all tracks are available in Hi-Res but depending on your needs you can seamlessly switch between different bitrates. This is a good feature for those switching between devices on data plans and those on fast broadband or home systems where every musical detail can be extracted and enjoyed. The interface really is great. It is very attractively laid out and easy to manage your library and connected devices. It recognized my external USB DAC and connected speakers and output a smooth and well-balanced sound even over good old fashioned wired earbuds.

Every week, the record industry delivers hundreds, sometimes thousands, of albums to our door. Our work is thus twofold: Every day, beyond the media hubbub, outside of the incessant stream of music news, we cherry-pick what is really interesting. We do this across every musical genre. This, again, does not sum up all that we do. Albums of the past constitute a huge, living museum that we work every day to curate and document.

It is a little more expensive than Spotify but at only $14.99 per month or $149.99 a year for the basic Studio Premier plan I think it is an incredible service. More plans are available for families or those wanting to mix streaming and downloads but the basic one serves up studio quality streaming up to FLAC 24-Bit up to 192 KHz, a surprisingly vast library and excellent apps for most devices. Sign up and enjoy a free 1 month trial with no strings attached here.

Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 Encrypted USB Flash Drive

Sorry if this is a bit ranty but wow! I genuinely, maybe naively, though this kind of bad design didn’t happen anymore. The user experience and practical usability of this drive are terrible – simply terrible. Let me frst explain how a USB drive should work for a busy user: You plug it in and it pops up in your finder window as a drive. If there is a software encryption feature, you plug in your USB drive and a password entry window opens, you enter a password, and then it pops up as a drive in your finder window. Oh if only life were so simple!

DataTraveler Locker+ G3 is easy for anyone to setup and easy to use, with no application installation required; all the software and security needed is built in. It works on both Windows systems and Macs so users can access files from multiple systems, without installing a program on every computer used.

Yes, I understand about hidden drive partitions, ISOs, and limitations with auto-running apps on certain computers but the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 claims to be “Compatible with: Windows® 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, macOS v.10.12.x – 10.15.x“ and in my judgment, this is true but misses the point. You can make it work, but wasting your time making it work is not what consumers expect anymore. Tech is supposed to do the work for you. I also found it odd that they do not provide any info on the encryption level or standards you get, only the below information.

Features:

– Hardware encryption — the best in personal security to keep your data safe
– Superior password protection — user sets a password to prevent unauthorized access
– Versatile — works interchangeably between Mac OS X and Windows systems
– Secure — drive locks down and reformats after 10 invalid login attempts
– Stylish — durable metal casing with built-in key loop
– Optional cloud backup — access data stored on DataTraveler Locker+ G3 from your personal cloud storage
– Co-logo program available1 — customize DataTraveler Locker+ G3 by adding your logo and/or digital files and instantly increase your organization’s brand recognition. The Customisation Programme offers unique packaging, custom profiles, colour adjustments, content loading and more, all with easy and convenient ordering

The first time I plugged the new Kingston G3 into my MacBook Pro nothing happened. Nothing happened the second or third times either, so I looked in my Finder settings to see if I could find out the problem. Yes, the box to show ‘External Disks’ was checked. WTF? At a loss, I tried ticking all the boxes for connected devices and wow, after ticking the ‘CD, DVD and iPod’ box a CD icon appeared labeled as ‘DTL+G3’. CD stands for Compact Disc for the younger readers out there. The ‘DTL+G3’ link finally got me into the drive! OK, I thought, I’ll cut Kingston a break as this must be a first-time setup quirk, and manually installing the encryption software will prevent this happening again.

DataTraveler Locker+ G3 offers cloud backup as an optional feature. Users can chose to automatically back up data from their DataTraveler Locker+ G3 to Google Drive, OneDrive (Microsoft®), Amazon Cloud Drive, Dropbox or Box, so if the drive is lost or stolen, their data is in a safe place.

I dutifully set up the software encryption, formatted it as exFAT and linked the drive to my Dropbox account for backups. So far so good, and the USB now showed up as an external drive called Kingston. I copied a file to the drive and it synched. I went to my Dropbox to check it was working and…. no new folder called Kingston or G3 USB or anything logical. Nothing. After some hunting around I found the new folder to which all my files synch in a folder abstractly called “Apps” and then inside a second folder called “USB-to-Cloud”, no mention of Kingston. I copied a second file to the drive and yes it appeared in this folder. Not ideal I thought, but I can get used to that.

Time to test the post-setup functionality; surely it will now be intuitive and user friendly. I ejected the USB in Finder and plugged it in again. No, it did not show up as Kingston or as an external drive. It showed up as a CD again and was called DTL+G3 again. No pop-up password prompt or anything to get me access to my files. I opened DTL+G3 and was presented once again with the install files for the encryption software. Out of pure frustration, I opened the software installer as I had done only minutes before and here, at last, was a password prompt. Yes, my password worked and the USB showed up as it should. Interestingly the CD named DTL+G3 was still there in Finder and accessible as a separate partition, which is exactly what it is. For your average user this process is unnecessarily confusing and for any user, it is a waste of time. For God’s sake why make using your USB complex in a world of “it just works”?

Put a lock on your personal data with Kingston’s DataTraveler® Locker+ G3. It’s a safe and convenient way to secure receipts, bank statements and other sensitive documents with hardware encryption and password protection for a double layer of data security. The drive locks down and reformats after 10 failed login attempts, so users can rest assured their data is safe even if the drive is lost or stolen.

To be fair to Kingston I borrowed a Windows 10 laptop and to my surprise found that all of the above seemed to apply to Windows too. To access an already set up USB you still had to enter a partition labeled as a DVD to then open the ‘DTLplus_Launcher’ app which then opens the password prompt which only then allows access to the drive. I checked that Autorun was enabled in Windows in the hope that it might automatically launch the password prompt next time I inserted it but… No this did not work. Nobody wants tech that doesn’t work easily anymore and especially if it actually makes your life harder, plus nobody wants a USB drive that requires a 26-page manual to use. I could not even wipe the drive and just use it as a regular USB.

Any Pros at all? Yes, the metal case is nice and solid but the cap is not very secure and will fall off and get lost within a week. Oh, and the LED looks like they forgot to cover it, just strange. A quick speed test with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test brightened my mood with 154 MB/s reads and 133 MB/s writes, which is very fast. I’m going to wrap this up now before I bore you all to death and sorry Kingston but I can’t recommend this device for anyone who wants to remain calm and peaceful while at work. I know that third-party hardware manufacturers face problems with both Windows and macOS but if you have a product design that doesn’t “plug and play” like this one doesn’t, then don’t make it!

If you decide this kind of pain is what you want in your life then check out the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 here and they sell for between $19.99 for 8GB up to $143.00 for 128GB.

Apricorn Aegis 3NXC

I have reviewed Apricorn’s excellent and user-friendly devices before but am particularly happy to balance my review of the 128GB Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 with a review of Apricorn’s brand new 128GB Aegis Secure Key 3NXC a versatile 256 Bit AES XTS Hardware-Encrypted USB flash key – the first with a built-in C-type connector. Basically this is a USB-C version of their 3NX Secure Key and is a worthy update in response to a market that’s moving towards smaller and thinner laptops and tablets that can’t accommodate a USB-A port.

The Aegis 3NXC is the most versatile hardware-encrypted USB on the market: it is compatible with PCs and Macs, as well as any operating system, including Windows®, Mac®, Linux, Android and Symbian. This provides an effective way of safeguarding data across today’s remote workforces, where employees are using a diverse range of business and personal devices to carry out their work. The device automatically encrypts all information as the user uploads it, with military-grade AES XTS hardware encryption.

Both the Kingston and Apricorn devices offer hardware encryption, 128GB storage capacity and fast transfer speeds so apart from the different USB connections we can only compare their usability and looks. First a note on encryption, Kingston does not provide any information on their website about levels or standards for the G3’s encryption while Apricorn provides abundant detail. The 3NXC features FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation (pending Q4 2020). NIST FIPS 140 is the cryptography standard program required by the US federal government for the protection of sensitive data. Much more detailed security info can be seen on the product page here. Far too much to list here so take a look for yourself and below is a summary.

The security and operational advantages of the Aegis Secure Key 3NXC include:

– No software – so there’s nothing to keylog or to hack.
– OS agnostic – the device is completely cross-platform compatible.
– Onboard keypad – all authentication takes place within the device itself.
– All data, passwords and encryption keys are 256-bit encrypted at rest.
– No host computer is involved in setup, authentication or encryption.
– Forced enrollment – no default PINs ensures that data is not put at risk by employees who fail to change a factory set PIN before deployment.
– IP-68 validation against water and dust damage.
– Separate administrator and user access.
– Read-only options that can be enforced by the administrator or set by the user if allowed by policy.
– Highly configurable with policy such as time out values, Data recovery PINs, and programmable PIN lengths.
– Brute force PIN attack protection.
– Ability to automatically configure multiple devices remotely using Apricorn’s Aegis Configurator tool.

The Kingston looks like any other sleek little USB and offers no hint that it might feature encryption while the 3NXC looks like it is designed to provide exactly what it does, secure, pin protected data storage. Its integral keypad is a bit old school in a time of fingerprint ID but it is super practical and sturdy as hell with robust hardwearing keys and an all-metal build. Due to the keypad, the whole package is bigger than your average USB key but it is so damn usable that these observations are moot. Sensibly, Apricorn has shunned a losable cap for the USB-C connection and instead goes for a simple if unglamorous rubber sheath. But again practical wins the day and the sheath is easy to use and provides an extra level of protection for your valuable data.

Jon Fielding, Apricorn’s managing director EMEA, says: “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and mobile working was on the rise, along with the associated risks to data. As the global workforce shifted from office to home practically overnight, the demand for our encrypted secure keys skyrocketed, as did the demand for our A-to-C adapters. We accelerated the release of the Aegis Secure Key 3NXC to provide an efficient way of ensuring that employees using MacBooks, iPads and Android devices can securely store and move sensitive data, wherever and however they’re working.”

The double-sided instruction sheet that comes in the box provides very clear info on how to set up a new admin passcode and separate user accounts on the device, and worked flawlessly for me. A full and easy-to-follow manual in several languages is also preloaded onto the key. One feature I love is that you can easily unlock the device in one hand before you plug it into a computer. This is just genius and means there is no fiddly pushing of buttons while the key is connected to the side or back of your computer.

This also means that you never have to enter the passcode on the actual computer, eliminating the possibility of someone getting hold of it via a keylog or other hack. A rechargeable internal battery means unlocking is a joy, simply hit unlock, enter your passcode and hit unlock again and it is ready to go in almost any device. This whole keypad thing might put some people off but compared to the confusing and overly complex way the Kingston manages access via software it is a winner and colored LEDs make it clear if the device is locked or unlocked when in use.

Despite the USB-C connection data the 3NXC’s transfer rates are limited to USB 3.0 speeds in the region of 80 MB/s read and 70 MB/s write but as I had to use an adaptor I only got 41 MB/s reads and 38 MB/s writes, still no slouch for everyday use but not as blistering fast as the Kingston. No doubt this would be faster in a native USB-C port with no adaptor in the way.

“USB-C is the first truly universal standard for transferring data between devices, and is set to take over from USB-A as the new standard on computers of the future. While most computers and laptops still offer both A and C connector ports, the number of manufacturers exclusively committing to type C is growing. We’re developing our products with this next generation of computers in mind – but we will continue to manufacture USB-A compatible devices for those who need them for the foreseeable future.” Fielding continued.

Another great feature of all the Apricorn USB keys I have tried is that they are compatible with PCs and Macs, as well as any operating system, including Windows®, Mac®, Linux, Android and Symbian. This incredible flexibility addresses the diverse security requirements of today’s remote workforces, with PC, MacBook, iPad and smartphone compatibility. Seeing as this device has the USB-C connection needed I plugged the 3NXC straight into my Samsung Galaxy S9+ running Android 10 and it connected seamlessly. I transferred about 8GB of video files off the phone and on to the USB in under a couple of minutes. Seamless greatness! When I say plug and play, this is what I mean.

Particularly suitable for highly regulated sectors such as defense, finance, government, manufacturing and healthcare, the Aegis Secure Key 3NXC allows businesses to support safe and productive remote working on a large scale, ensuring that all workers follow information security best practice and comply with regulations such as GDPR.

While not small the 3NXC is not big either, and I had no problem adding it to my keyring and toting it around in my pocket all day. The 3NXC comes in a range of seven storage capacities from 2GB to 128GB, allowing IT departments to closely align deployments with the storage needs of each employee. Prices range from £48 to £145.

Livescribe Symphony Smart Pen and Journals

I have been waiting for a product like Livescribe for years, and so enjoyed testing out the Symphony pen and special Livescribe journals. I am now a devotee. Easy-to-use with seamless connectivity, Livescribe enables you to take notes, draw up plans or doodle on real paper in a real notebook with a real ink pen, and immediately have every letter, number and stroke instantly backed up on your phone or tablet. Several similar products have come across my desk but none have ever got the job done as well as this.

You need to charge up the pen every day or so if used regularly, and enable Bluetooth on your device, but that’s it. The pen transmits your writing to the app instantly where you can store, review, share, and backup your notes to the cloud as PDFs, Text, Docx, or images. The smartpen can carry up to 8 lined journals (No.1 through 8) at the same time between synchs, but be sure to not use two identically numbered lined journals at the same time as your smartpen might muddle the two. You can even review your notes as a feed that breaks each comment down by time and date so you can backtrack more easily if your pages are a bit of a mess.

Symphony Smartpen:

– Transcribe your notes in 27+ languages.
– Auto-sync your notes to your favorite cloud services.
– Store up to 1200 A4 pages on our pen before you need to sync.
– Our pens give you access to our Livescribe+ application that syncs to your pen and opens the doors for your handwriting to go everywhere with you.
– Access to our free Livescribe+ app.
– 90-day standby battery life.

Via the app or a shortcut printed on every journal page, you can also activate audio recording that will synch together with your notes as you go. This is genuinely awesome and just like writing, is easy to use while brainstorming or during an important meeting where you don’t want to miss a word. As a journalist, this is incredibly useful. No need to start recording on your phone and then struggle to match the recording back to your notes later – it is all just there in the app.

A pen for every occasion. The pen that fits into your day like a cup of coffee. With you always, but lasting longer and doing so much more. From taking notes in your meetings, to the idea that came on the way to the next. Mix your writing and audio together to relive that moment of inspiration, using just your pen. Save time, the pen makes your handwriting searchable giving your more time to brew another cup.

The Symphony pen itself is a little bit chunky but feels good in the hand. The USB charging port is discreetly hidden in the butt end and the fine ink point is a pleasure to use. The journals are good quality and much like any standard notebook your company might hand out. The special thing about them is the unique lines, dots, and symbols on the pages that enable the pen to track your writing and the symbols act as short cuts for media recording and playback in the app as well as bookmark options. They are purchasable in numbers 1 through 8 so you can progress from book to book and keep building up an archive of notes with a possible max of eight hundred pages before you have to start over.

Livescribe Journals:

– Hardbound journal with rounded corners and an elastic closure strap
– Scientific, financial and statistical calculator
– 5.5″ X 8.25″ dot paper
– Includes a ribbon bookmark
– 100 lined sheets
– When you’re done with a journal, you’ll need to archive it from your smartpen or application before you use another journal with the same index number. For information on archiving, please visit the Tips & Tricks section of our website.

The ease of use is what endeared the Livescribe solution to me. Without even reading the instructions I charged the pen, installed the app and was off to the races. In summary, it just works and is very intuitive. It syncs with the cloud well and is now in my bag everywhere I go. The Symphony pen is $109.95 here and a pair of journals will set you back $24.95 here.

Petsafe Drinkwell® 2 Gallon Pet Fountain

If your dog is bored with still water in a good old-fashioned bowl, then try out the PetSafe® Drinkwell® 2 Gallon Pet Fountain which, much like a self-contained garden waterfall system, cycles water from the main reservoir, up through a pump and trickles it back down into the main bowl again. If your dog likes to drink from taps then this will be a big hit.

System Includes:

– 2 Gallon Pet Fountain
– Carbon Filter
– Foam Filter
– Fountain Pump with Adaptor
– Quick Start Guide

The free-falling water stream has an adjustable flow control so you can go from little trickle to a pretty impressive stream of deliciously cold water. It’s nearly silent circulation on the lowest setting but ramps up to a more splashy stream on the highest.

The free-falling stream of water encourages your cat or dog to drink more which can help prevent urinary and kidney diseases. The large capacity fountain is perfect if you have multiple pets or a big dog. The square fountain design is large enough for several pets to drink out of at the same time with minimal splashing.

Features:

– 2-Gallon Water Capacity – This BPA-free fountain is the perfect size for cats, dogs and multi-pet households
– Encourages Hydration – A free-falling stream of water entices pets to drink more and helps prevent urinary and kidney diseases in pets through increased hydration
– Filtered Water – Replaceable carbon filter removes bad tastes and odors while the foam filter catches pet hair and debris
– Customizable Water Flow – Adjustable water flow allows you to customize the stream for you and your pet, or turn it off for a quieter operation
– Easy to Clean – The pet fountain is top-rack dishwasher safe (excluding the pump) and specifically designed with no hard to reach places
– Compatible Filters and Pump – Fountain uses PetSafe® Drinkwell® Carbon Filter #6 (PAC00-13906), PetSafe® Drinkwell® Foam Filter #5 (PAC00-13711) and Drinkwell® Replacement Pump (PAC00-16977)

The pump also uses a carbon and foam filter to remove bad tastes and odors from your pet’s water keeping it fresh for longer. The main bowl is top-rack dishwasher safe and specifically designed to have no hard to reach places to make cleaning easy. PetSafe® has come up with a cracker here. One of my dogs is addicted to it, so much so that he will drink, paddle with his paws, and blow bubbles in the bowl for an hour at a time. Let me just say that he is definitely hydrated after a play session in the Drinkwell Pet Fountain, if his frequent visits to the bushes are anything to go by!

Self-assembly is super easy and the PetSafe® Drinkwell® 2 Gallon Pet Fountain is available for $64.95 and I guarantee your dog will have a great time but keep a mop handy just in case he dives in like my Holmes 😉

Evutec & Mutrics Audio Sunglasses

This summer’s latest cool gadget is a pair of wireless audio sunglasses, and this sleek-looking offering from Evutec & Mutrics promises the cool Roy Orbison look combined with banging tunes. The younger generation might not want to look like Mr. Orbison (or know who he was) so they might opt for the white or red options rather than the black I received. They are surprisingly comfortable to wear considering the arms are quite thick in order to accommodate the technology. Charging was super easy via a magnetic connection and the battery life was impressive. I got a full seven-hour day of listening out of my pair with a mix of music and radio. For such a lightweight device, this is great.

Specs:
– Hear the word around you Open Ear Design – The open-ear design Allows full awareness of your surroundings while you’re enjoying music. The unique design keeps you safe when you’re outdoors.
– Near-field Surrounding Sound System – Feel like “Dolby” surround effect with a special sound cavity and dual built-in micro speakers.
– Bluetooth connectivity for various devices – With built-in Bluetooth 5.0, the glasses can pair with devices with Bluetooth 4.2 or lower. They are compatible with multiple IOS/Android devices.
– Built-in microphone – Offer access to hands-free calls and Google/Siri assistance
– Interchangeable lenses – Replaceable lenses to meet your daily needs
– High-temperature resistance, sweat-resistance, safe driving – Adapt to various environments, can be used normally from -20°C to 70°C. Block up to 99% of UVA/UVB rays. IP55 sweat resistance.
– Long Battery Life – Charging one hour, use one week
– Comfortable to Wear – Ergonomically Redesigned Foldable Earphones for Easy Travel / Listening Comfort
– Ultra Slim Design – Mobile Phone Thickness Design, Flexible Material Frame and Very Light Like a Normal Sunglasses Weight. Exclusive US Style Design, Neat, Unisex, and Very Comfortable to Wear while Relaxing and Exercising
– Evutec Audio Sunglasses

The key feature of these glasses is the open-ear audio system. Music plays down and out of the arms and it is the proximity of the speaker to your ear canal that means you can hear the world around you as well as the tunes. For cycling or driving, this is a much safer solution than earbuds or over-ear headphones. The compromise is unfortunately sound quality though, and these glasses don’t sound amazing. They work fine but the lack of fidelity and bass means you don’t feel as immersed in the music as much as you might hope. Talk radio, however was much better, and listening while driving was great. Spoken-word is obviously not as dynamically demanding as music and worked a lot better for me with this open-ear system.

Cycling or driving alone is one thing, but if you want to use these on crowded public transport then be aware the open ear system means your neighbors will be forced to share your music taste. I know a lot of people are happy to share their tunes with a whole carriage of commuters but I don’t want to be that person. Bear this in mind if you pick up a pair of these.

Choose the look that best fits you. Featuring a selection of limited-edition colors – each sold separately – these replacement lenses are easy to interchange for a look that’s all your own with polarized options available. And they’re forged from premium materials to ensure they won’t easily scratch or shatter.

Connectivity was good and I had no problems hooking up via Bluetooth 5.0 to Android, iOS, and macOS devices and the on-arm controls are simple and work well. You can access Siri and incoming calls with the built-in microphone. Interchangeable lenses are also available so you can pop out the dark lenses for a polarized set if that kind of look appeals to you. Summing up, they are pretty good for private listening but unless you want to be unpopular, avoid wearing them in crowded social spaces. Take a look and pick up a pair from Evutec’s site for $129.99.

Tom Atkinson is Reviews & Dep. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @techtrends_tech

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